A few weeks after Zhang Fengge had left, Lei Nuwa and her sister left for school– separately, of course. Yang Sui had been chauffeured– Nuwa had taken the bus. Sui had multiple suitcases with her, Nuwa only had two bags with her.
The Liu Bu School of the Gifted and Talented was the top school in the country. A majority of the student body got in due to their parents' status and wealth, but some won an anonymous scholarship that would provide them with everything they needed if it meant they achieved perfect scores. In her first life, Lei Nuwa had almost worked herself to death in order to attend; her knowledge only grew as she continued to study in her next lives. This being her fifth, she had no problem getting in, and even less of a problem with keeping her grades up– she was not worried.
Lei Nuwa, after walking to and boarding the bus, sat down in her seat. Her feet hurt, her legs hurt, her head hurt, and the heat was starting to make her sweat. She had forgotten how miserable the trip to the school was.
She purposefully sat in the back, curling herself up in the corner seat and rolling down the window. In her previous lives, she had placed herself in the middle of the bus (the busiest section), but still no one had sat next to her. In this one, she was just excited to have a row to herself for the long journey. Before she could recline herself, a girl had quickly sat down next to her.
"Please help! Pretend we are friends– no, best friends!" Nuwa was dazed as the girl began to laugh like she had said something funny.
"Lan Lan! I thought we were going to–"
The girl quickly grabbed Lei Nuwa's arm and smiled up at the boy chasing her.
"Haaa, sorry! I promised my best friend that we would sit next to each other. Right?" She shot a desperate glance at Nuwa, silently begging her to play along. Nuwa wanted to laugh, but she instead cleared her throat and turned her face into an expression of being wronged.
"Lan Lan, you said you would sit next to me! I won't let you switch seats, I refuse!" She threw a wink at the girl, before turning back around to the boy. "You! Quit pestering my friend, pervert. I will tell the bus driver."
The boy, feeling mistreated, walked away from the girls with a pout. When he was far away enough, the girl next to Nuwa burst out laughing.
"Ai– you are too good! You should become an actress, you would become a star!" Nuwa's soul was four life times older than the girl, so she could not help but want to reach her hand out and squeeze the girl's cheeks.
She refrained from doing so.
"I am Zhou Lan. You are a scholarship kid too, right? I hate those rich brats, like the boy who was begging to sit next to me. Did you know he denied a chauffeur just so he could ride next to me on the bus? I should have let him fall under the tires." She grumbled, rambling to herself after the bus finally began to move. Nuwa could not help but laugh.
"Poor girl, don't you want to date a rich man?" She teased Zhou Lan, raising an eyebrow. Lan groaned, kicking her feet childishly and threw her head back.
"You are too cruel. Even if he's rich, he stinks! Do you think he knows what a shower is?" Lei Nuwa just laughed.
"Zhou Lan, it is nice to meet you. I'm Lei Nuwa." Zhou Lan froze and turned back to the girl sitting next to her.
"Lei Nuwa? Aren't you engaged to the rich guy Liu Yichen?" Lei Nuwa grimaced and clenched her jaw at the mention of his name.
"Unfortunately, yes. I get sick even hearing his name." Zhou Lan no longer had the friendly look on her face, but rather one of fear.
"So you aren't a scholarship kid? Why are you riding the bus? Shouldn't you be riding with him?" Lei Nuwa laughed lightly at the girl, and couldn't help but pat her on the head.
"My fiance does not exist as far as I'm concerned– I hope I never see him again." And indeed Lei Nuwa had seen four lifetimes of him already. "My family's rich, but they only paid for their other daughter to go to school. I won a scholarship on my own."
"Ai, rich people are so confusing! At least you aren't pretentious, I like you! I can't believe I am sitting next to an heiress. Can we go shopping with your father's credit card? Steal one of his luxury cars, get drunk and jump in your backyard pool? I've seen a movie where they do that." Lei Nuwa could not help but laugh, and Zhou Lan could not help but laugh along with her.
"Okay I'm done. You're not rich, look at your clothes." Zhou Lan winked and nudged her on the shoulder. Lei Nuwa knew she was joking, but wasn't sure how to react. She had long passed the mindset of a teenage girl, but did not want to hurt Zhou Lan. She pretended to take offense, and fake pouted. The tired woman inside of her felt childish– but she knew that she could not take small moments like this for granted.
She remembered in her first life, one of the first people to show her kindness. After being tripped, she had spilled her papers all over the hallway. While everyone else had ignored or made fun of her, a younger girl had gathered some of her papers and asked if she was okay. Back then, she had been so touched, but only said thank you. As she lived more lives, she wished she had talked more with her, and showed her more gratitude. Kindness became rarer as time went on, as time repeated, as time continued to trap her.
As she stared at the girl next to her, she felt a tightness in her chest. She had just remembered her bracelet– she didn't know if it worked, but she tapped it once and saw it light up. Friend. A word she did not understand until she had met Zhang Fengge. She could feel the walls she had built around her start to crumble, and she was terrified. She coughed and smiled again, then excused herself.
"Sorry, just excuse me for a second. I think I need to refresh myself."
"Refresh yourself? What are you, sixty?" Zhou Lan had said jokingly. However, Lei Nuwa did not hear as she was already in the bathroom at the end of the bus.
Lei Nuwa felt nauseous all of a sudden.